


In the dragon’s lair

by Niibeth



Category: Dredd (2012), Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Dragons, Family Secrets, Gen, Millicent the cat - Freeform, Protective Siblings, Witch Hunters, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 14:03:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12134052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niibeth/pseuds/Niibeth
Summary: Old dragons hoard gold. Young dragons hoard what they can.





	In the dragon’s lair

**Author's Note:**

> English is my second language, so feel free to point at the grammar errors.
> 
> Welcome to my tumblr account - [Niibeth](http://niibeth.tumblr.com/)!
> 
> Illustration by me

\- Millicent, what’s gone into you?! – Techie cried.  
Cat scratched his hand, hissed, jumped into the window and ran away. The witch ran after the cat and Armitage left his work bench and ran after them both. You would be a bad witch if you ignored your familiar, and even worst brother.

He found Techie on the edge of the woods. He held Millicent in his hands.  
\- How is she?  
\- Fine, but she doesn’t want to go home.  
\- Strange.

Armitage turned to look at their small cottage. Traditional crooky witch house, built and rebuilt by generations of their ancestors. They took good care of it after they left their father’s home. In the morning light it looked peaceful, beautiful even. Then he noticed something wrong in the air, in the way how the dust danced in the sun – there were blank spaces and they were surrounding the house.

The intruders hid under a clumsy cast magical vail. Several witch hunters in enchanted red leather and a group of scared, huddling villagers. Armitage and Techie hid under their own vail and quietly went into the woods. When they stopped for a short rest, they saw a column of smoke rising from the place where their house once stood.

A dozen days later they were in the mountains. Witch hunters, it seemed, attacked all witches in the country simultaneously, and they had nowhere to go and no one to warn about the danger. They decided to cross the mountains and test their luck on the other side. The path became narrow and dangerous – steep wall on one side, deep gorge on the other. And suspicious sounds coming from the nearest turn. With soft steps they turned around the corner. There could be people, trolls or cave bears, but reality looked even worse. Angry shiny black dragon balanced on the steep wall on the other side of the gorge, furiously hissing and swinging its long tail.

It took Armitage some moments before the fear decreased and he saw that the dragon was in danger. It was a medium-sized creature with four legs and no wings. Evidently it chased the mountain goat and climbed too high. Now the goat teasingly jumped even higher and the dragon got stuck. It was too heavy to survive a free fall and too clumsy to crawl down or up. Stones crumbled under its claws, threatening to leave it without a foothold.

\- Poor thing, - Techie whispered.  
\- Techie, dragons are ancient and wise creatures…  
\- That one doesn’t look very wi… ancient.

The dragon peered at them with one bright golden-yellow eye. Then roared. So, not a speaking one. Young, probably.

\- Let’s help it.  
\- Let’s turn around and choose another rout.  
\- Armie!

Armitage sighed and observed the slope.

\- You can climb closer to our side, there are some stones that can hold you, - he explained, - We will make them sturdier and more visible, then you can jump from the wall to the path.

Dragon nodded its head in a very human gesture. So, sentient and knows our language.

They united their forces and wills and marked several raised stones. Armie enchanted them to become steadier and more secure for a while. Techie covered the walls around them with bright orange flowers.

\- Be quick, - warned Armitage.

Dragon tightened as a cat, preparing for an attack, and in a sentence of quick and precise jumps covered the space between his place and their path.

The dragon behaved friendly, they were tired, and when it beckoned, they followed it to the dragon’s lair in a cave hidden by a waterfall.

The dragon was a poor hoarder. It filled the lair with stones, pieces of wood, broken furniture, torn clothes and other trash, ranging from painted wooden doors to old umbrellas. To Armitage’s relief there were no human bones, though the beast could be smart enough to throw them away. In the middle of the cave was its nest, made from branches, curtains and furs. “The dragon probably cannot raid cities or big villages, - thought Hux. But it can rob lonely travelers or small farms. Then run away with the things. I doubt that it has a single piece of gold here”.

\- May we use your belongings? - he asked politely. Dragon nodded. He left Techie with the beast and investigated the cave. Soon he had firewood, several jars and pitchers and pieces of cloth that could serve as blankets. When he returned Techie was already petting the dragon’s ugly head.

\- What are you doing?  
\- His eye is damaged! That’s why he was stuck on the wall, he couldn’t see well! – Techie said cheerfully.  
\- He?  
\- He can answer to the no/yes questions. And his name starts with K!  
Armitage sighed. Since Techie’s early childhood all living creatures were attracted to the witch, and he was attracted to the most ugly and miserable ones in turn. “Thank gods, that Techie didn’t have to choose our familiar, - thought Armitage.

Soon they shared a diner with the dragon. Millicent chased mice in the debris and returned only in the morning, carrying an extremely fat mouse as a gift, looking absolutely pleased with herself.

They have spent six days together. Hux moved and repaired some furniture, so the cave looked more like a room now. Techie gathered plants and prepared tinctures to clean and heal Kylo’s eye. The eye looked well and the scar under it gave the dragon “a brave fighter look”, - as Techie explained to the dragon. He also claimed that dragon had a very expressive “face”. “If 50 shades of gloom and sulk count, - thought Armitage, but didn’t tell it aloud. It would be ungrateful. Kylo managed to catch a mountain goat next day after all. And when Hux complained that it was too coarse, he left for a whole day and returned with a sheep from a farm.

\- We can stay here, - said Techie, when they were out of the cave, looking for some of his plants.  
\- It is a good place. Kylo has shown me a path that leads to hot springs! We can start a garden, draft-proof a cave, build a stove. He can bring us things and scare people away…  
\- What are you talking about?  
\- Can we stay, Armie? I’m tired of travel and I don’t want to see people ever again. And Kylo is our, well, my friend. But he wants to be your friend too…  
\- Techie, dragons are dangerous. Even the nicest ones. They are murderers, killers.  
\- He’s not like that!  
\- Techie, were do you think all those things came from? In the cave?  
\- They are his.  
\- Yes, if property is a theft. He took them from people…  
\- They are his! From his house. Haven’t you noticed, some even have the same coat of arms. There is even a painting of his parents.  
\- He probably stole it because of the gilded frame, Techie. It is a portrait of human family.  
\- He was human. He betrayed them, turned into a dragon, then returned, but the house was destroyed and he saved what he could.

Armitage shook his head.

\- Techie, of all creatures who can live both in fey and human realms, dragons are the only ones who can lie. And they use this ability left and right.  
\- We too.  
\- We too what?  
\- We lie too. And…  
\- Don’t.

Techie pouted. Armitage thought of attentive yellow eyes and already habitual sleep in their nest-bed, by the warm creature’s side.

\- You have a point here. If he was a human, I would not believe him still. But I would have stayed. We stay, brother.


End file.
